Growing up on small farm near Minden in the early 1900's

Recent material sent
to me by a distant cousin along with bits and pieces from my various relatives
has given me a good insight into childhood in the community where my ancestors
grew up - - Cammer (near Frille and Minden). Henry Prange,
aged 93, was the distant cousin who provided most of this information in a taped
interview about 1995. Henry's parents lived at Farm #33 Cammer. My great
grandparents (Paul's) lived at #35 just across the road from the Pranges.

Cammer was a small
village of about 500 near the border of Schaumburg-Lippe and Prussia in northern
Germany. Frille was the nearby village that had an Evangelical Lutheran Church
which served four surrounding villages including Cammer. Frille was about a 30
minute walk from Cammer and laid part in Prussia and part in Schambug-Lippe.
During the 30 year war, half of the congregation was on one side and half on the
other. According to Henry, Minden was a little more than an hours walk
from Cammer. All of these villages were farming communities with little or no
other businesses. Henry's grandfather, Friedrich Prange, was the Master Builder,
or contractor, for the area. Henry's father, Henry and his brother, and the
grandfather and uncle of the writer all learned the carpentry trade from
Friedrich. All but Henry's father and grandfather immigrated to America when
they were in their late teens or early 20's.

Henry was one of ten
children. His dad spent full-time as a builder, so it was up to his mother and
her children to do all the farm work on their 20 acre farm. Their main crops
were rye, barley, potatoes, vegetables and fruit. They were completely self
sufficient with the exception of using the mill in Frille to grind their flour
(run by a windmill); a local tailor came to the house to make clothes for those
confirmation age or older; and a shoemaker came to the house to make shoes
for those of confirmation age. These were made from cow hides that were saved
from butchering. Prior to confirmation age children wore wooden shoes. Henry
commented that both leather shoes were identical (no right or left) and it took
a quite a while to break them in. During World War I, Germany was blockaded and
could not import cotton cloth. His mother grew flax, made linen cloth and sewed
shirts and dresses. Besides 20 acres of crops she also raised sheep, harvested
wool, and spun cloth for winter clothing. This was a remarkable women to juggle
all the balls that were necessary for their family. They kept several horses,
three or four cows, and a number of pigs, chickens, geese, ducks, and rabbits.

Their typical day
began at 500 AM with chores for the animals. At 600 AM they ate their first of
five meals for the day. It consisted of bread and coffee or milk. They then went
to the garden or field and worked until 900 AM at which time they had the second
breakfast consisting of sausage (metworst), cheese, bread, and coffee. Henry's
mother of course baked all the bread from rye they had grown. At noon everyone
returned to the house for the main meal - - a one-pot stew with potatoes,
vegetables and some kind of meat. Butchering was done in the winter and
they had no refrigeration in the summer. Consequently during those months they
used smoked meat or poultry, all from their farm. They bought nothing except
sugar, salt, and coffee from the one small store in Cammer. The next meal was at
300 and consisted of cake, cookies and coffee. Then back to work until 600 PM.
Supper was served about 630 and consisted of the same one-pot stew from noon.
Everyone tumbled into bed by 800 or 900 PM so they could get ready to repeat the
routine the next day. On Sunday everyone walked to church in Frille. Worship
services were in the morning and social activities in the afternoon. Henry
mentioned one thing that jogged my memory (Paul Brandt, age 73) men sat on one
side of the congregation and women on the other side. This was still the
practice in Indiana for Lutheran communion services when Paul was small - -
until about 1930.

Cammer's children
went to a one room school. The first two or three grades which started at age
6, went to school at 100 PM for two hours. The older children attended
from 700 AM to 100 PM. All went 11 months each year. The school had only one
teacher. Confirmation school was two afternoons each week in the winter for a
period of two years until age 14, at which time they were confirmed.
Confirmation instruction was conducted in Frille by the minister and all the
children walked from their villages.

Henry's family home
burned in 1908. It was one of the last in the area with a thatch roof. Insurance
companies no longer would cover homes with thatched roofs. The new home
contained a living and bedroom space for his grandparents and Henry stayed with
them. The entire family ate together in the dining room. This was one of the
first homes in the area to have electricity. Others used coal oil lamps.

CHRISTMAS IN CAMMER
Everyone cut their own tree from the nearby forest. Trees were decorated
with paper roses and candles. The children's gifts were placed on the dining
room table and consisted of clothing and one orange - - the only one they
received for the year. All of this was done on Christmas Eve after children were
asleep. When he was small, Paul's folks had the same custom of trimming the tree
and placing his gifts under it after he was asleep.

Everyone walked or
rode their wagon to Frille for Christmas Eve services. The children from each
village prepared carols to sing during the service. St. Nicholas came a week
before Christmas dressed in some kind of costume wearing chains which he would
jingle. He would try to scare the kids and tell them that they better be good.
Christmas Eve and day did not involve St. Nick, but was strictly religious.
Other holidays were Easter, Frankton (about 10 days before Ascension Day),
Pentecost, and Erntefest in late summer - - this was the harvest festival.
Frankton was observed by decorating the homes with evergreen branches.

Henry described how
the house was used in the old days, or when he was very young. A large door in
the center entered into the deila. This was a large space into which they could
back a wagon full of rye, thresh it, bag it, and store it in the attic. Animal
stalls were on one side of the deila and the family lived on the other or in the
rear. There was no central heat. They usually had an iron stove for cooking and
for heat in a combined kitchen, dining, and living space. If they had another
formal living space, it would probably have another stove. Bedrooms were
unheated. Children went to bed wearing long johns and carried hot bricks wrapped
in a blanket to put under the covers. The mattress consisted of several feet of
straw within a burlap envelope and covered with a sheet. Over the children was a
featherbed for warmth. Stoves in the house burned wood or coal. Wood was
available from the nearby forest. Coal had to be hauled from some distance.
Three or four times each year winter, Henry's dad had to leave at 400 AM with a
team of horses and wagon; go to the mine and haul the coal home. This was a long
day's chore.

Henry explained that
the population explosion when he was young, caused young men to travel to
Holland or the north seacoast of Germany to work on fishing boats during seasons
when they were not farming. In his family it was common to have 10 to 13
children. He once counted 75 first cousins. Many of his close relatives
immigrated to Holland, northern Germany near Denmark, and to South America in
addition to the USA, since the oldest male child in a family inherited the
homestead and farm. Also, some family sources said many young men left to avoid
military service.

Henry, who was born
in 1904, came to America probably in the mid 1920's. His younger brother,
Herman, joined him soon after. Both came to Indianapolis and worked for Brandt
Brothers General Contractors (Paul's grandfather and great uncle). Henry later
attended the University of Illinois and completed a Bachelors degree in
Architectural Engineering. Eventually he became the State of Indiana's chief
architect in charge of the construction of facilities for State parks. Herman
left the family firm to start his own home building business in Indianapolis.
Paul had the privilege of doing the architectural work on Herman's own
residence.